Built by James Goddard, a Massachusetts native, this massive Greek Revival landmark was later owned by prominent Macon banker and Macon & Western Railroad president Isaac Scott. W. A. Huff bought it for $14,285 in gold in 1866, and after changing hands several times, it was purchased by William McEwen Johnston in 1893. Originally built as a half-house with just four columns, the house was expanded for Johnston by architect Peter Dennis to accommodate colonnades on three sides. Beginning in 1976, Harris and Wynell Bedgood spent many years restoring and maintaining the historic integrity of the house.
Macon Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
David Baldwin writes: The house was built by John Samuel Betts. He and Mr. W. W. Ashburn starting buying property over here in June 1888, before the railroad connected north of Ashburn in late October, 1888. First Mr. Betts had a house at Wanee Lake, but later moved to Ashburn. I can’t recall the exact date he built this house, likely 1890’s but well before 1900. He was mayor of Ashburn for twenty years and ran a saw mill that employed 100 people, 60 black and 40 whites. He was a great Christian but the saw mill went broke in 1912 due to over supply in the industry. He once told someone that the only thing he hated about being broke was that he was not able to help people as he had always done before. He died in 1918 and four town leaders spoke for him at his funeral at the Methodist Church. He was from Clayton, Georgia originally but they ran out of logs there and came to Eastman, starting his new mill six miles north of Eastman at a spot called Dempsey. He lost a son when the son was 20 years old. He knew Mr. Ashburn, J.S. Shingler, D.H Davis, Mr. Evans and all the town founders very well.
Betts, whose sawmill was the reason Ashburn came into being, was also the first mayor of the town. He commissioned a prominent architect, Peter E. Dennis, to design this home in 1897.
Jerry Shealy Powell adds: My grandfather, Lawrence Bunyon Shealy, was in the lumber business. He moved his family to Turner County between 1925-1929. Prior to moving to Turner County he owned a sawmill in Florida and others in Adrian, Camilla and Ellenton, Georgia. He purchased the Ashburn Lumber Company and managed a naval stores operation. In the middle 1940’s he bought the John Samuel Betts home and restored it. My father said he hand picked all the pine for the floors. For more than forty plus years the home remained in our family and was known as the “L.B. Shealy Home”. My grandmother, Ruby Clyde, outlived her husband and children.
Subsequent owners have done a nice job of maintaining the house.
Shingler Heights Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Built for $12,000, on a site donated by the local women’s club, Cuthbert’s Colonial Revival Carnegie Library is now home to the Randolph County Chamber of Commerce. It is the only Carnegie Library designed by Georgia architect Peter Dennis (1854-1929).
Cuthbert Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Thomas John Shingler (1864-1934) was the brother of James Simon Shingler, for whom the neighborhood was named. Mr. Shingler gave then-adjacent land in 1907 for the future construction of the Methodist Church. I understand that this house, like most in this district, were designed by famed architect Peter Dennis, a family friend.
Shingler Heights Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Designed in 1907 by Alexander Blair & P. E. Dennis…it remains one of my favorite courthouses in Georgia. The Italianate clock tower is an eclectic but forceful addition.
James Simon Shingler (1859-1943), a native of Holly Hill, South Carolina, was one of the leading businessmen of Turner County during his lifetime, and owned a great deal of real estate in Ashburn, Sycamore, and rural Turner County, as well. Ed Cane, the owner of the building which features this medallion, notes that it was the design of the famed Georgia architect Peter E. Dennis.
Ashburn Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
